[Dixielandjazz] Spitting in the wind? The OKOM jazzer's quandary

[David Dustin]

Tom Wiggins wrote:

We saw a start at it again with the Ken Burns series and all the hype
about it, that is the kind of thing that in my opinion NPR should be
doing a lot more of and they already have Jim Cullum to help launch it
and perhaps if they were to expand it and exploit the music more it
would continue to grow and the other forms of media might get on board.
  The one thing is for certain that if we all don't push them they
won't.    Where there is a will there is always a way!  maybe many have
just lost the Will or maybe never even had it and are just content to
rest on their laurels and play for fun.  Heck I don't know, just trying
to stimulate others to help push it anyway and everywhere they can no
matter how small a paper, magazine, internet radio, blogs, websites or
TV  on local cable stations etc, who are always begging for
programming.  I just think there is a lot more available out there for
all of us if we just get and remain creative with our marketing and
promotion.

Tom, I truly admire your insight and passion. Indeed, it¹s tough to know how
to market ³OKOM² when the problem seems to be that it¹s not ³TKOM² -- ³THEIR
kind of music². There is a relentless, inexorable momentum to popular
culture. When the 20th Century was young, jazz was young and it remained
³OKOM² until Benny Goodman played the Palomar and the teens of my parents¹
day and age embraced a new sound.  It wasn¹t just their father¹s jazz
anymore, it was THEIR jazz, and it was THEIR jazz up until the 1950s when my
generation, the Boomers, started taking fast swing into Rock. And it wasn¹t
our father¹s jazz anymore.  And Rock has splintered into HipHop, Rap, and
types of music which are really hard for aging Boomers like me to fathom,
especially since some of us always liked the ODJB, early Ellington,
Teagarden, Armstrong, Bix, Paul Whiteman, Hoagy (and even worshipped Glenn
Miller and Tommy Dorsey ‹ can I admit that in this forum?). And for my kids,
it¹s not their father¹s ³jazz² any more!  And these new types of music are
now global, common to a global youth culture that adapts the musical forms
to Chinese culture, Japanese culture, Indian culture (how many of us pay
attention to Bollywood film scores?), Vietnamese culture, African culture.
Makes my head swim ‹ even makes my 26-year-old daughter¹s head swim ‹ it¹s
not her ³jazz² anymore already either!   These people don¹t know about and
don¹t revere the early jazz traditions. They are into writing ³the future,²
the next big thing in that global cultural maelstrom, the thing that
inspires them the way they are living today.  As Dire Straits¹ Mark Knopfler
wrote presciently in about 1978, ³They don¹t give a damn about no trumpet
playin¹ band...it ain¹t what they call Rock and Roll!²  (from ³Sultans of
Swing²).  We can fulminate all we want about cultural loss, our lack of
ability to market OKOM, our complacency in accepting the dregs of gigs and
fees, but it is what it is: the deck is stacked against those of us who look
to the past for our enjoyment and inspiration. The majority of the world is
looking out the windshield, not the rearview mirror.  Sure, occasionally a
rising generation will catch a whiff of nostalgia and we¹ll see a momentary
time warp where we loop back to Swing and particularly ³Jump swing² (Big Bad
Voodoo Daddy, et al.), or loop back to the Beatles (believe it!), but those
are fleeting miniscule aberrations which will do nothing to stem the global
tide of change and taste. OKOM will remain what it will always be, something
cherished by a fringe of fans and players who find it and thrill to the
different beats and voicings and derive great satisfaction from looking out
the back of the car instead of watching the road ahead unfold.  We can¹t
change it and reorder the universe.  The fact that this is so ‹ that great
players from 50 and 60 years ago end up scuffling for meager gigs in
obscurity -- is not a moral failing. It is the way things are and we trad
players must keep our chops up and not disdain playing those retirement
homes and free outdoor concerts where 60 people means you had a TERRIFIC
outing, and soldier on.  I don¹t have any other answer because marketing
like crazy isn¹t going to change the world, even if I had the chops of
Teagarden, the resources of a Bill Gates and a band that sounded like Ed
Polcer¹s.  I have none of those things and so I ³tend my own garden² and
just do what I can do...play trad as much as I can and be happy when I see
60 people in lawnchairs around a community bandstand, or navigating walkers
into a community room at a local nursing home and be THRILLED to death when
I actually see some folks doing the Charleston to my music.  (It happens now
and then. I  remind myself not to let it go to my head.)  Thanks for letting
me ramble.  Proust had nothing on me, except perhaps a method and a message.

Fuerte y afinado (³Loud and in tune²)

David Dustin (a guy who has loved jazz and the trombone as long as he can
remember)